1980 - Part I Dream--01/22/80
We stand on Dilalevida, Keirus and myself - a land of dual nature - the irony is not lost on either of us. The winds howl and barren land stretches before us; a dark bird circles high above. The sky is pleated with dark clouds. "Where is his body?" comes Keirus. "Absorbed." I respond, but we move to the place where Kraft had played us false. His robes are still there, and in one sleeve is a silver symbol - a Crossed Ankh. Keirus looks at it strangely, and in his hands it glows. Roderick calls out, "You have it - bring it to me." We prepare to move thru dimensions. Keirus pulses out, but I remain - a glint catches my eye, covered with dirt. I draw forth a golden coin. It has Rodeick's picture on it, and the inscription on the coin is "Imperius Aeternum" and on its reverse Aradi's image and the words "Demonicus Aeternum". A sound - I whirl and am staggered by a paralyzing bolt. Danielle stands, wind whipping her hair. She motions and the howling ceases, altho the winds do not lessen. She is robed in her Leahan aspect. "So - you now know what Kraft knew - eternal ruler (she motions and the coin moves from my hand to hers) or eternal demon." Her words are soft - her decision is hard. "Kraft yet lives within my firstborn, but he atrophies; spirit, too, fades, tho long after death." I speak: "He was absorbed by me, too." "No - feint - always with the silent one feint and masking. Chaos thrives because chaos adapts." She is almost in a trance state - the coin has somehow activated some sort of internal process; Leahan is almost like a playback. "But control dies because it is inflexible - laws - laws - Kerlan, too controlled - he died - my husband." "Mother," I say, "he was more than that" - it does not register. "Demons and elementals - there are no seams in contiguity - universes die." I slap her with her past: "Kerlan was your father." - a blink, the trance cracks, shatters. The wind howls once more, and tears fall from her eyes as I pulse us once more toward Roderick as the dream ends.
Dream--02/01/80
The sun appears as in a dream, hazelet of blue high in the day. We are on the planet of Alldrwan, so the marquee informs - yet we are in our prime aspects. The city that gleams sits on a shore of rich blue seas, deeper than azure colour, and far out white ships under sail strain against the wind. Roderick wears the symbol Keirus brought to him. He is hooded, this day, hands hooked into a black and silver belt. As Danielle and I enter this sphere, I am aware of two things. First, that quite some time has passed because Danielle is happy, radiating a type of joy. Second, that Jarane is with Anatana, Roderick, Breane, Keirus and Aliana, and he has regenerated his arm; I am struck, because I don't remember which arm had been missing. All are surprised at my entrance. Breane comes to me, touches my hand and stands beside. Roderick asks, "Was your quest successful?" "It was sevens in the sleeve." He laughs at an old gamblers adage. Danielle stands, still aloof from all, her mind open to wonder. Breane 'paths to me questions about her. "She met her father in the Eternity Wind, and vanquished part of her past." She nods. Anatana and Jarane stand on an outcropping of rock. I motion at him and Breane says, sadly, "He'll not be the same - the arm is only an illusion of flesh, his mind meets madness still, tho these past have been good days." I note cadence of speech, realize we are speaking the language of Alldrwan, called Honek. Roderick questions Danielle and she flares, briefly, into anger, the walks to the edge of the sea and dives in. "Why here?" I ask him. "Because this land no longer responds to Alldrwan." "He is you?" "In a way, yes. He was the imperfect creation of a mystic aspect of myself - a seedling." Anatana is in her Ceycirie aspect, but Moodoom is sheathed on her hip. She says, "What path now?" "The path indicated by this," he points to the symbol around his neck - and I am flashed suddenly to a state of danger. "We must leave here, immediately!" I take Moodoom from Ceycirie and swing it into the air: "Cast us from this doom impending, lest we meet our final ending, cast us down away from..." I do not have a chance to complete it, as this lush world explodes beneath, before us - but the bubble had been formed and we are granted asylum in limbo for the brief flick flicker of instants and then tumble out. The eight of us stand, then, on a shifting plane. Jarane is freaked; I look at his face. "Send him to Cymynal, NOW." Roderick commands, and Ceycirie follows. "Where is this place?" comes from Aliana. My own heightened awareness computer-inputs of data and hunch: "Unless this is a sham, we are on a moon above the planet of the Middlemasters," and in all of our minds, Ketain, laughing, as the dream ends.
Dream--02/11/80
A place of rich clouds - a sun blazes yellow and dark shapes silhouette against it. There is haze and mist and the sky is a hot red. The world is called Sinseng - we allow for odd pronounciations. I am again Danzane, dressed in brown leggings and muslin. I turn from the grotto's edge, peering at the inner sun. On the ledge above, floating in midair, Cullane watches, hair whipped back by the wind. Her face is a high boned skull; her eyes have infinity lines painted about them. She 'paths to me, "The others?" "Gone to Warriors Bones." I have the impression it is a place. We have come here the aftermath of death, R'fine's death - it was not her home world, but her favorite world, it seems. Raika's grief has sent him to madness. "Lost hearts, broken past three," from the sayings, and Orwan and Auralane, Cullane and myself have brought him here. Cullane's bit of driftmass pauses before me. She is in greens, a tunic and leggings. Her hair on this world is reddish, flaring to brown. She draws forth a cattal, and the device plays the music of harmonic crystals, piercing wind. Orwan and Auralane emerge from the waters of the grotto. "Raika?" says Cullane. "Rides the madness train." The image is not that of a train as we know it; it is, rather, a maze-image, self-trial, ritual. Breaking fast, we four drift within for feast. As we sit there, a woman begins to form from mid-air. She is silver and her hair is red, with long swatches of white rippling through. Her eyes are red, and her mouth a burst of blue against the metallic cast of skin. Orwan stands - she is shimmering into flesh, silver sheen gone. Instantly, I know that the silver was a shielding for deep space travel. As the coating dissolves, I know her, too. She is "Sharane" comes Anatana's voice. Sharane-the-Untouched comes unbidden to me. She is Auralane's sister, and only as her coating dissolves do we see her wound, a hole in her lower left arm. Cullane turns away, Orwan demands information. "It is of a piece with all else - Gideon's revenge is fully, through distance. He has sworn death to all." I move to her, asking how he'd found her. "Gideon "sees" with his six-sided soul - planes of existence are not barred to hexagonal eyes." As she finishes, an odd memory reacts - for a blur - instant - I "see" this scene in high contrast - Orwan's images imposed by Roderick's, and in Sharane's mind a hint of veiled laughter. There are too many voices calling to me - and chorus of here-now. Cullane senses disquiet, motions. I 'path, "Life plays an angry disguise - morals run." She nods, "Archaics rule Sinseng, but they are not for long." In the distance, a series of growing explosions fire the sky. The external world of Sinseng is at war - and shattering silence is broken only by a cattal-song as the dream ends.
Dream--02/20/80
I am a junior gunner on a spacefighter called Wailing Tree. I appear to 17 but chronologically am much younger. I have stowed away to join this battle - but Nicholas (my cat) is with me, in blue and silver mail. I wear my father's ring, silver and lead with a diamond shape in its center. I am called M'hais the Uncanny because of my rapport with Nicholas. The captain of the spacefighter is Jules Rappanoc, and he is grey and gouged by scars on his face. The uniforms are all grey with black trim. There are twenty of us per fighter; the Kempers (1st line) are all trained as magicians, using light rays, cohesive light, solid and fatal. As we travel through to the War of Blades (a place name), I am aware of an insistent calling in my head. There is an open pod with no one guarding it. I go down to launchpoint, touching no device to leave a warning trace - Nicky trots behind me. We leave the fighter, but Captain Rappanac notes the departure and sends crowners after us. Crowners are livig missles, heat-seekers. Two burst above the craft, forcing the pod down. A large moon is below us. We crash into a dustwall and the craft is at an angle. The moon exerts a strong gravity, until we both note that there is an artificialness to it. We walk to the top of a dune and look out. The planet around which this moon revolves is huge. Shrouded in blue-grey mists, bright flashes punctuate, like flashes from a sparkler. Suddenly, a shadow looms from behind me. "You are yet early, young master," and the figure steps into eerie light. It is Rejc Ketain - and the memory, in this dream, fades. I stand with Breane, Roderick, Anatana and Danielle on this same moon - many lifetimes from where I had been. Anatana voices concern and Breane cups my face, brimming with tears. Roderick holds us all in protection and the bright lightnings on the planet below are sharp and penetrating. "You've been here before?" asks Danielle. "Yes - before Jowennes exiled me, there was a man - Rappanac - who had promised to train me but had foresworn it. I stowed aboard his ship in disguise with a familiar I had." I explain the rest of it. All are a bit confused - but somehow I know that Ketain has been aware of all our past millenia. A voice booms from every/nowhere: "So, the young one returns to claim part of heritage he once denied. I was chosen the other." Rejc Ketain's image, blurred and gigantic, is both within and apart from us as the dream ends.
Dream--02/21/80
On the moon above the planet of the Middlemasters. Roderick protects us with a 5-sided spell, binding Light, Sound, Time, Penetration and Wind. Aliana and Lei Keirus have returned, but strangely, they are both silent and their forms waver. Ceycirie asks why this occurs, and Aliana says, "We are near the outer reaches of our existence - we must go back and forth from Tyweyr to reassert our energies." The toll of Roderick's 5-full spell becomes apparent - his features are altering into those of Aradi. His voice is pitched demonic and hollow. "We must have a plan to overcome Ketain." "Why?" from Breane. "He has not attacked - he seems to seek an answer to some problem in his existence as we do in ours." "He has foresworn death to Keirus and by extension, to my brother." I am disturbed by that - it does not appear to be correct. Suddenly there is a slamming sound and Aradi-Roderick's spell crumples. Ketain stands, his form surrounded by a soft aura, tan hair whipped by moonwind - his eyes laugh and dance. "I knew you'd come, demon," he motions to Aradi. "That your existence, tied to mine, would be drawn here." I can sense Breane probing, probing softly (softly, my mind cautions) into Ketain. His eyes widen and I move to shield her as he erupts into blue light. I take the brunt of it, but deflect it out of Time a beat away. "So - you've trained well." Aradi lashes out at him, snarls punctuating a demonic spell. Ketain laughs and fades - through his tranparent form, we see boulders go to dust, vanish and reform as flowers - silver, with petals of interstiching blue. "We must confer," and he is gone. Breane's mind calls to me; I am at her side, and she tells of her experience with Ketain. "Ketain visited the Confusion millenia ago - before Roderick-Aradi existed there as a demonic force opposing Virling Kerlan. For his own purposes, Ketain needed the status quo. He aided (unknown to Kerlan) in trapping the demon in the essence of a great mountain, then -" Suddenly she is cut off. Aradi stands, grim, eyes of fire seeking. Breane dives to one side, I to the other. The boulder on which we sat is dust. I reach to Roderick to seek his mind. There is chaos - he is there, muted, "cannot aid you - did not know of this." Aradi follows this with attack after attack. I parry two, shifting them into the Time stream. Breane resolutely confronts him. "Fool," and electric blue fire envelops her - and feeds back to the demon. Encased in his own energy, he collapses unconscious. I move to Breane. Anatana-Ceycirie enters the glade we're in and rushes to Aradi's form. "Do not touch me, Shardow." I understand why. Breane glows, weirdly. I know instinctively that she siphons off Aradi's influence, and that she is blazing hot. Roderick's voice, then, is in my mind. "Good - I know how to remedy this - I must have the Mirror to do so." Aliana and Keirus go to Tyweyr, promising to return. Danielle stands, hooded, robe sweeping behind her, on a ledge, watching me intently as the dream ends.
Dream--02/29/80
A path of differentness - we are on Earth, but not this Earth - in Baltimore, in the year 2163, where we live as magickal beings - Don and Mark and Jody and myself. Don is Dwan, Jody is Ceri, Mark is Erso and I am Llewes. In this continuum, I am with Ceri, co-ruling our lodge of beings called the Meti Circle. There are others not recognized in the dream. We are going to Meti Circle, and suddenly Dwan points out that the center of Baltimore is burning. We rush down to our innersea's edge (which is where North Avenue is now, stretching across to Mount Royal), and see the flames licking at the sky - ruby, punctuated with released demons whose freedom has long been denied, by the imprisonment in stone. This refers to the sculptures of gargoyles on the frontpieces of buildings. We try to go across the sea, but the floating bridges have been rendered inoperative, sending them to lie on the banks. We return to plot strategy at Erso's apartment; as we reach his street (Maryland at 27th), a portion of the sky seems to implode, and the image of a burning face hangs there for possibly three minutes; its mouth opens and closes, but we make out no words. Suddenly the burning ceases, and we are left with an afterimage of a face we all know - Jarane's. The dream kicks up into a different sphere, and I stand on a floating boulder on the moon of the planet of the Middlemasters, trying to fit another jigsaw piece into place. Is it memory? I wonder. A figure comes into my field of vision, Ceycirie. She is silent and has unsheathed Moodoom and she is looking for something. I float my boulder behind a series of rocks and petrified trees. She pauses by a growth of silver flowers and kneels down. She swings Moodoom above her head, air whistling as she chants something. The air itself seems to open for her, and she steps into the gap. I impulsively follow her - tunnel-like, this corridor of silver. I am tremendously anxious. I have been here before - how could Ceycirie know of this. The tunnel branches, but Ceycirie's blade has traced on the corridor, leaving her a path to follow should she lose her way. I see her in the distance, walking into a candlelit chamber - someone is with her. I move to the entrance; shockingly, the chamber is familiar - it is similar to the Room of Mirrors on Sanctuary long ago. Against the far wall is a Mirror with nine surfaces. Anatana and the other figure, who is Jarane, walk to it. Suddenly from out of thin air materializes the image of a young man, dark hair, green eyes, carrying two long knives - one a saber, one a curved knife called a Lippin. He is robed in my colours - but is not me. He is also transparent. Ceycirie calls him Jedric in greeting and he sheaths the saber, taking her right hand - Jarane is on her left. There is an intake of air and Breane and Roderick are beside me. "What occurs?" from Roderick. "I do not know," I 'path. They move to the Mirror, and the activation of it sends chills thru the room. Ceycirie takes out Moodoom and speaks, "Let my blade seek a final rending of this series of mysteries unending, two sons born of different paths, reveal the linkage or risk my wrath(?)" In response, the Mirror unfolds a series of images from both youths, meeting in the center mirror. The image in the center mirror is that of Rejc Ketain. Breane is aware then of another presence. We all move to Ceycirie - she is shocked to see us, but welcomes. The newcomer Jedric stands aloof, although his form seems to solidify more and more - and Rejc Ketain is there apart from his image. "You breached my defense too soon." Roderick demands how this can be, and Ketain silences him with a glance. "I am the," he chuckles, as if to emphasize and yet deny, his use of his next words, "realized futurities of your son by Ceycirie and of Llewes' son by Ceri - I am all three of you." We are in high agitation, and Ketain seizes that advantage to blink out of the frame. Suddenly there is a rumbling, as the corridor begins collapsing. It is Jedric, fully fleshed, who speaks now: "Quickly, into the Mirror," and as we do that, it collapses behind us as the dream ends.
Dream--03/02/80
We are in a grey limbo - all is silent save our presence. Ceycirie and Roderick, Breane and myself and Jarane and Jedric. There is much tension, as if our ears were about burst. Jedric takes his curved Lippin and murmurs. His voice is pitched low, but I am nearest him. "Elikijia osmet Lendoric, licheise eti lichise, onamet riknit Jedric n'Obijincia," and his blade gows with a green ardor and crackles with energy. We gaze briefly into each other's eyes. He says, "I know you not, but we are one." His lips did not move - he is in my head, but not in the way of telepathy. Breane is beside me, 'pathing. "I know him, Shardow, he was with Ras on McKissip (a planet)." Her hand seeks mine, then separates. My words: "He is a son of an alternate path," and Jedric laughs beside. His blade is radiant, and he bids it to enter the limbo, to cut it. Patches of light appear along its slashes and fall, crumple. The land we are borne to is of silvers and blues. In the long distance, mountaiins arch into the sky, which is mostly white with blue cloud mists. Ceycirie gasps in recognition. "We are safe here for a time," says Jedric. "But Ketain.." comes from Roderick. "He enters here at his peril." "Why?" from Breane. Jedric turns, and his eyes reach each of us in their intensity, green and savage. "Because he cast out Ceri, much beloved by beings here, who've sworn revenge upon him." "Why should that matter to a Middlemaster?" I counter. A light silvery snow has begun to fall. "Because Ketain's hold is tenuous - he cannot dwell here, as Aliana and Keirus cannot dwell there." Breane: "You've observed our conflicts?" "I have caused several to come about." He gestures, and a blood red stallion with a matching horn in its forehead appears. Ceycirie walks to it and mounts; she murmurs its name, Spiritu. Roderick swings aboard behind her, demanding "But how do you know of this place?" She responds, "This is Caliro." Jedric summons mounts for all of us and we ride towards a city set in the disk of a magnificent valley as the dream ends.
Dream--03/06/80
We are on Caliro - Roderick, Jarane, Jedric and I are in a city whose name we know not. A double helix of stairs yawn in the distance, going up and then stopping in mid-air. There is no one else in the city we are in - it was constructed specifically to house us. Jedric, in amusement, has named it Adivelaled. Ceycirie and Breane have gone to Aliana's world to inform the rest. "What time is it?" comes a voice from outside of us. We look out, and two Calirans who'd helped construct this city are leaving, specks in the distance, silhouetted against a blue-white sun. Jedric has looked involuntarily at a wristlet on his right hand. "Is that a timepiece?" comes to my mind. "Yes, it paces duration of this world's rotation and shows up as a different colour on the band." He holds his arm out. "Who is Ketain?" my question banishes banter. Jedric shakes his head. "I do not know of his origin." Roderick has been 'pathing with Ceycirie; he motions to us. "We must go to Tyweyr," and he begins murmuring, hands outflung. I take Jarane by the shoulder and push him outside the field of Roderick's power. There is the pulsing effect and we blink into Tyweyr. Before us, within a cats-cradle of dark energy, stands Rejc Ketain. He has Cymynal in his arms and Ceycirie, Breane, Danielle, Corolis, Bartholomew, Aliana and Lei Keirus are attacking. He parries energy fields with ease and says nothing. Lei Keirus breaks the cats-cradle and confronts Ketain - he has Moodoom out and sparkling. Ketain has drawn a sword of rainbow silver with a prismed foil. Keirus, silent, brings Moodoom slicing through the air. Ketain feints to his right and switches hands with the sword. Keirus hesitates only scantly, but it is fatal. Ketain plunges the sword into Keirus' neck and flips it upward. Blood gushes as Keirus' jaw and face splinter in two. Aliana screams. Incredibly, we all feel an upsurge in Ketain's power - his force is incredibly strong, and I sense Keirus' energies leached off into his. He moves his sword next to Cymynal's neck and all of us moving forward stop. Roderick, Jedric and I have just reached the clearing. Ketain stands over Keirus' body and waits. His cats-cradle is back, in a constantly shifting pattern of energy. Roderick walks to its edge and demands why. "This is all a game of power - you know that." Danielle says, "Who are you?" Ketain's form shimmers, becoming transluscent, then normalizes once more. He seems unaware, but I am aware of Roderick in my mind, "I have pierced his secret." My eyebrows raise. "You are a fool, Roderick," from Ketain, and white fire leaps at him. Roderick shifts into a different dimension, but it pursues. Ceycirie cries out and Corolis, behind all of us, cries out, "Stop!" Ketain ceases - looking at her; he is amused. "You wish to know of me - very well." He crosses his legs in the air, holding Cymynal in one hand. He begins quoting, "There are only arcs of existence throughout the fabric of being -" Behind me, to my right, Danielle gasps, "Words of the fathers..." "Each arc is comprised of multidimensional existences - the more dimensions one exists in, the larger the arc of existence for an unique entity." He pauses, runs his fingers through his hair. "When Adrionna Keep was uncommited to either Kerlan or Kraft, she yet had relations with both. She became with child by Kerlan but did not know it - she was also filled with Kraft's essence that night of conception. The two essences were compatible and split the formation of children." Corolis is listening, intent. "A rift in existence, literally a new type of existence, was created - the Netherverse. At the same time Corolis and Octolin Berella were born in that realm, fraternal twins, darksiders, were born in the Netherverse." "But that place is a twisting madness," comes from Roderick. "Yes - unless you make peace with it as I and my sister have." I have edged near to Ketain, blocked only by one strand of the cradle. Roderick keeps Ketain talking. Jedric is opposite me, his green blade poised at the ready. I am within two feet of Moodoom. "When this one," he points at Bartholomew, "came aware of his personal arc diminishing, I made an error - I let him live." "This is crazy," comes from Danielle. "You are Berella's twin?" Ketain laughs. "Fraternal - we share interdimensional energies - which is why he's never truly been destroyed." Jedric nods to me, then speaks "But the Mirror showed you in Jarane's future, in my past." "True - both of you are "distant relations" - I manipulated the Mirror to show my image, to give me time to take a hostage." He holds Cymynal, red-haired elf. At his last word, I leap over and between energies, Moodoom in my hand. I strike Ketain on his right shoulder and Cymynal falls - blinks out of existence. Roderick, behind me, calls "After her" to Breane. Ketain's silver blade flashes, but Moodoom holds - in my hand, the blade lives. We confront each other face to face - the cradle begins to dissipate and Jedric is there. Behind us is a commotion - Ketain laughs, blinks away. Breane has returned with Cymynal - the little girl is crying. Corolis walks to us and puts her arms around the little girl. As she does so a negative imagery takes place, and Corolis' form is replaced by another. "I will tell you where to find my brother," says Magdalen of Longtree as the dream ends.
Dream--03/07/80
A bell gongs - hollow and deep. I open my eyes and we are on the world I had forbidden to Hellmann. Silver pillars on a darkening plain; clouds roil in storm. I stand well away from the service - honor - being given to Keirus. Present are Ceycirie, Danielle, Breane, Corolis-Magdalen, Bartholomew, Jedric and Roderick. Behind me, a hand touches my arm. "Shardow," from Aliana, "we are ready." We move by the columns, and stand in semi-circle around an altar with Lei Keirus' remains on it. Roderick has stage managed this, of course, creating an illusion of Keirus' unshattered features because, as always, ther is no time, no time. "Now," comes from Roderick. From nine beings more than human energies blaze from our eyes. Keirus is bathed in them, a multicoloured child with rainbows. The colours solidify into white and suffuse Keirus' form. Part of him flows into each of us. When the lights from our eyes die, Keirus is gone - and we are alone once more. Magdalen sits cross-legged and we gather in octogonal form about her. "Now, and now?" comes from her. "Yes," I respond. "for beginning, how is it that you came as Breane but now as Corolis?" She smiles; black streaked mahogony hair catches strands of lightning - her eyes and face. She is a warrior, not at all like Corolis. "That is the simplest. The world ruled by Adrionna Keep was matriarchal; it was in their genes that a woman-in-prime, as they call it, can draw upon ancestors for knowledge, for strength - I, too, am part of Breane's ancestry." Ceycirie raises up, then resettles. "Come on, all of you, is it not true that of all of you, Breane has matured at least as much?" We are all silent, having come to accept Breane as so much a part of us that we do indeed need a more objective eye to recall her beginnings. I am far more disturbed because it implies something similar with Ceycirie. Aliana has left the circle, she moves toward the edge of this plane. Roderick asks where Ketain is. "T'is ironic - he has gone to his home." "The Netherverse!" from Ceycirie. I move to the perimeter and walk with Aliana. "What is it?" Her response is silence. Behind her, Roderick is about to shift us dimensionally back to Caliro. "Ketain's prophecy - Lei is dead - I am next." I am solemn; she turns, her face remarkably like Beveth's despite the blonde hair. As she turns, our selves shift with Roderick's spell. "Meet us in Adivelaled," comes from Roderick. I shrug assent in my mind. "The night will enter, Shardow." "Ketain brings that," comes from our side - it is Magdalen; she is watching us intently. Breane, then: "Roderick wants us to go to Tyweyr to resolve Aradi's anger." "Have him go, then I will remain here." Roderick's form appears before me. "I need you there." He looks at Magdalen. "We also must question -" and his features melt into Aradi's. "Fool!" I sidestep his first blow. "Keirus is dead, as I said - Ketain wants to destroy you." "What is your stake in this, demon?" His features are raw and ruddy - anger; he launches at me and I fold Time around him, slowing him to a crawl and cut off enough flow of molecules of air to cause unconsciousness. Ceycirie runs up to us, with Bartholomew, Jarane and Cymynal. "We must get him to a Mirror quickly," I say or 'path as the dream ends.